Jami K. Taylor

Transgender politics as body politics: effects of disgust sensitivity and authoritarianism on transgender rights attitudes

ABSTRACT Transgender identity inherently involves body politics, specifically how transgender people may physically represent gender in ways that do not match their assigned sex at birth and how some may alter their bodies. Yet, political behavior research on transgender rights attitudes leaves unaddressed the role of transgender bodies in shaping those attitudes. Using an original, representative national survey of American adults, we analyze how authoritarianism and disgust sensitivity affect transgender rights attitudes. These two predispositions often reflect social norms and morality about bodies, especially those of stigmatized minority groups. First, we show that attitudes about transgender rights are multidimensional, forming civil rights and body-centric dimensions. Second, we demonstrate that disgust sensitivity and authoritarianism both positively predict opposition to transgender rights, and that they moderate each other’s effects such that the greatest opposition is among those jointly scoring higher on both predictors. Finally, we show that disgust sensitivity and authoritarianism predict greater than average opposition to body-centric transgender rights policies.

Bringing “T” to the table: understanding individual support of transgender candidates for public office*

ABSTRACT Of central importance to groups is the representation of their interests in government. A direct strategy for representation is to elect officials that identify with the group. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement has increasingly been successful in fielding LGB candidates for local, state, and national offices, even though these candidates face barriers. But while many lesbian and gay candidates have achieved electoral success, few transgender candidates have run for office and even fewer have won. Our project examines the hurdles faced by transgender candidates and provides a predictive analysis of a unique 2015 national survey that queried American adult respondents about hypothetical transgender candidates for different political offices. We hypothesize that although transgender candidates are likely to be opposed by potential voters that would also oppose female, African-American, or gay or lesbian candidates, for transgender candidates, there is a stronger influence of respondent disgust sensitivity and gender nonconformity. The findings largely support our arguments. We conclude that transgender candidates are in a similar electoral position to gay and lesbian candidates, with likely supporters fitting a profile that is similar to the Democratic voter base. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of minority group symbolic representation and democratic citizenship more broadly.

Degrees of Acceptance: Variation in Public Attitudes toward Segments of the LGBT Community:

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community includes a diverse set of groups, including distinct groups based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity, but it is not clear whether the public makes distinctions in their attitudes toward these subgroups. If they do, what factors motivate individuals to evaluate gays and lesbians differently from transgender people? This study analyzes Americans’ attitudes toward these communities, and it evaluates their support for nondiscrimination protections. We find that public attitudes are significantly more negative toward transgender people and policies pertaining to them than they are toward gay men and lesbians and related policies. The analyses reveal that differences in these attitudes are associated with social contact effects, variation in cognitive consistency, elite cues, and the varying magnitudes of key political factors, such as religiosity and partisanship.

An Exploratory Study of Public Service Motivation and the Institutional–Occupational Model of the Military

This article empirically connects Moskos’ Institutional–Occupational model to the large body of cross-nationally validated research on public service motivation (PSM). We find that in our sample, the PSM construct is positively correlated with institutional motivations that reflect Moskos’ insights. We also find evidence that the four dimensions of PSM (Attraction to Public Participation, Commitment to Public Values, Self-sacrifice, and Compassion) may offer a more nuanced way to assess institutional motivations. Our research suggests that those interested in military recruitment/retention/performance and public administration scholars may have much to learn from each other. We call for further research in this area.

Public Service Motivation and Institutional-Occupational Motivations among Undergraduate Students and ROTC Cadets

Given the current fiscal climate, budgetary pressures may have important implications for recruitment and retention of military personnel. In response to this issue, we join two literatures to study motivational differences in undergraduate college students and Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets: Moskos’ Institutional and Occupational (I-O) enlistment motivation model and Kim et al.’s revised Public Service Motivation (PSM) scale. We survey ROTC cadets and undergraduates at a mid-size public university and find that PSM is higher for ROTC cadets than regular undergraduates. We also find that for ROTC cadets, the institutional motivators for enlistment correlate positively with the rational, normative, and affective dimensions of PSM. In addition, we find increases in the Occupational motivator and the compassion PSM dimension reduce the likelihood of being an ROTC cadet whereas the Institutional motivator and the self-sacrifice PSM dimension are positively related with being an ROTC cadet.

Transgender prejudice reduction and opinions on transgender rights: Results from a mediation analysis on experimental data

Fears, phobias, and dislikes about minorities should be strong determinants of whether Americans support policies protecting such minorities. Studies suggest that discussions and information about transgender people can reduce transphobia. However, these studies also indicate that experimental treatments do not necessarily affect individual attitudes on policies concerning transgender rights. Scholars contend that durably reducing prejudice should increase public support for minority rights. In this study, we examine this causal mechanism utilizing an experiment. We find that reducing transphobia is a reliable mechanism to increase public support for transgender rights. These results are robust to causal identification assumptions, suggesting that this mechanism provides a clear avenue for stigmatized groups to increase public support of rights for those groups.